107 posts from November 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

My Better Self and my Lesser Self have been in constant conversation
since Friday afternoon, when news broke that golf superstar Tiger Woods had been in a low-speed, one-car crash just outside his home in the middle of the night.

The dialogue's been going something like this:

Lesser Self : Hit "refresh" on tmz.com. Let's see if there are any new allegations, accusations or lightly sourced rumors.

Less than two seconds into this new campaign video from US Senate candidate David Hoffman, the announcer mispronounced the last name of the candidate under attack. It's juh--NEW--lee-us, not gee-uh--NOO-luss.

Also, as Rich Miller points out: "it appears that the video’s voice-over setup asks a different question than the `regular' people were asked."

Progress Illinois reminds us that Hoffman, whose grandfather was the former CEO of Geico Insurance, is hardly an `umble commoner himself, Let the class warfare begin!

That’s the Chicago Way... The rap is that his West Wing is dominated by brass-knuckled pols.

The expression apparently dates back to at least 1931 when, according to legend preserved cinematically in the 1987 film "The Untouchables" (see below), a disillusioned cop told famed G-man Eliot Ness: "You want to get Capone, here's how to get him: He pulls a knife, you pull a gun; he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago Way."

It's unclear from the online archives when the term became synonymous with insider politics, as in "(Former U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski) made a few dollars, which is the American way, and helped a few friends, which is the Chicago way, " in a May, 1994, Mike Royko column.

And it's also unclear to me whether other cities also feel that they have their distinctive "ways." Do world-weary residents speak of "the New Orleans Way," "The Philadelphia Way" or "The Kalamazoo Way"?

UPDATE -- A colleague reminded me of this essay that clarifies things somewhat:

He could say: "None of your business," even though that's not the way to go...Mike Lupica, New York Daily News sports columnist, on Tiger Woods, his minor auto accident and rumors swirling around it.

Most celebrity news/gossip is none of our business, even though the expression "None of your business" seems quaintly out of date. Sure many of us want to know what precipitated the weird, low-speed crash outside Tiger Woods' home over the holiday weekend -- I've certainly been poring over the panting reports posted to rumor-friendly web sites -- but do I have an informal right to know? Do I have justification for my desire to know about Woods' marital travails, if any?

To the extent that celebrities trade on their images and private personalities to expand their fame and wealth, the public does have a legitimate interest in their doings. If you are rewarding celebrities with your attention and with goodwill directed to their sponsors based on your overall opinion of them as created by them and their image makers, then you have a defensible interest in the truth that lies behind those images.

The implicit bargain of modern celebrity is that it's a battle between the image makers and the image wreckers -- the celebrity is no longer able to draw lines between public and private that the public will respect.

With athletes this is less true than with, say, actors. Tiger Woods' ability to earn millions of dollars in tournament prize money every year is not dependent on what you or anyone else thinks of him. For the most part he has avoided making his private life public and kept the journalistic focus on matters related to golf. His endorsement deals trade on his enormous talent and legendary focus on the links, not on whether or not he's a jolly paterfamilias.

In this case, for him, "None of your business" is a defensible answer and, under the circumstances, probably exactly the way to go.

In comments on another thread, a reader has called my attention to an essay on Huffington Post by Henryk A. Kowalczyk, one of that site's few Republican/libertarian voices, in which he makes a point that's been occurring to me lately as well:

Health insurance policies, as we have them now, largely cover routine medical care. We pay a high monthly premium so that when, once a year we see a doctor due to a bad flu, we pay a small co-payment instead of the full charge of around $100 per visit. This is not insurance at all: it is a health maintenance plan, something similar to the extended warranty plans offered for cars, TVs, refrigerators, etc. Most people do not buy these plans, as it is better to put some money aside and spend it when a major repair is needed than to pay for it in advance. Only a small portion of our current health insurance plans are true insurance, in that they cover the high cost of our major health problems.

Though I don't agree with where Kowalczyk goes with this observation, I think he's right to observe in so many words that "insurance" is a misnomer when it comes to what this debate really is about. The concept of "insurance" paying for routine or expected procedures is absurd. And it's strange if not downright misleading to use the same term to describe the program that reimburses me for regular checkups with the program that guards me and my family from utter financial ruin should a medical catastrophe strike.

The former is, a Kowalczyk observes, merely a health-maintenance plan that can't possibly be a good deal, overall, for the consumer (any more than electronic maintenance plans could possibly be a good deal, overall and in the long run, for consumers).

The latter isn't a good deal either, for most people on average, but, like fire insurance and auto liability insurance, the risk of not having it is simply too great.

The album notes say Poole never recorded this song, though it's said he sang it frequently in concert. Wainwright's daughter, Lucy, leads the second verse. The lyrics are here. The lyrics with lead sheet are here.

Friday, November 27, 2009

On my hard drive is an absurd, unwieldy and, I suspect, not uncommonly large archive of roughly 1,300 digital family photos taken in just the last 12 months.

Row upon thumbnail row of kids' sports, school events, vacations, reunions and other gatherings. Included are five snaps of the cake my daughter baked and decorated for our Super Bowl party.

Why five? Because my philosophy is that if it's worth photographing at all -- debatable in this instance, I know -- then it's worth photographing well. And since there's no additional cost for each digital image, I err on the side of wretched excess.

And then I get lazy about going through the archives and discarding all but the one shot that says "Cake!"

So abundant and inconvenient to browse are these pictures that no one in our house ever actually looks at them. They might as well be stuffed into shoe boxes like their analog forebears.

Another not-uncommon problem, particularly at this time of year, is gifting. What to give those closest to us who already own most of the present-sized things they truly want? More of the same? Something they ask for specifically, as though they were placing an order from a catalog? A same-as-cash gift card?

Well, as I discovered several years ago, these two problems can solve one another.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

In-Vitro Meat ... will appear in 3-10 years as a cheaper, healthier, "greener" protein that's easily manufactured in a metropolis. Its entree will be enormous .... socially transformative, like automobiles, cinema, vaccines.... from Eight Ways In-Vitro Meat will Change Our Lives by Hank Hyena, H+ magazine

This article includes a short webliography of articles about laboratory grown meat that does not involve the production or killing of live animals. It's a tantalizing idea if for no other reason than that the production of meat has numerous nasty environmental impacts. And it's a very big idea because, if it really takes hold, it will change the world in several significant ways.

I find
nothing in the Election Code that tells me that a candidate has to be a registered voter at all....I think we all agreed that the petition signers
have to be registered voters at the addresses shown on
their petitions, and I have a hard time understanding the
logic used to require candidates to have a lesser
connection to the voting process than petition signers.
But there it is....However troubling I find this issue....I believe I'm compelled to
grant the motion to dismiss.

Richard K. Means, Laiacona's attorney, said he will challenge the ruling at an appeals hearing next week.

Which comes closer to your view about health insurance? The government should be primarily responsible for making sure all Americans have health insurance. OR, Americans themselves should be primarily responsible for making sure they and their families have health insurance."

Government --37% Americans
Themselves -- 61%

CBS News/New York Times Poll. July 24-28, 2009

"Do you think the federal government should guarantee health insurance for all Americans, or isn't this the responsibility of the federal government?"

Should guarantee -- 55% Not the Responsibility -- 38%

(down from 64% / 30% in June)

FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. July 21-22, 2009

"Do you think it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure all Americans have health care, or is that not the responsibility of the federal government?"

Is -- 51%Is not -- 46%

Quinnipiac University Poll. June 23-29, 2009

"Do you think it's the government's responsibility to make sure that everyone in the United States has adequate health care... ?"

Percentage of those who said yes:

Democrats -- 77 %Republicans -- 25% Independents -- 49%OVERALL -- 53%

(In February, 2007, the overall yes response was 64%)

NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll Feb. 26-March 1, 2009

"Which ONE of the following do you think should have the most responsibility for helping ensure that Americans receive health insurance coverage: the federal government, employers and businesses, or individuals themselves?

The last time we discussed this quite a few of the "it's not a right!" people got hung up on the notion that there's no "right" to health care in the Constitution. So for the purposes of this conversation, let's take the word "right" to be equivalent to the basic human right not to starve to death, say, or the right to emergency medical treatment after an accident.

And let's frame this with two more exact questions:

1. What do you feel is the basic minimum medical/health care that society -- all of us -- should guarantee to any person, and what sorts of care, therapies, surgeries etc. should be reserved as a privilege only for those who can afford them?

2. What do you think accounts for the striking difference between how Democrats and Republicans respond to some of the poll questions above?

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

A great and relatively new entry to my podcast feeds is "Hang Up and Listen," Slate's weekly sports roundtable featuring Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin and Mike Pesca. I'm particularly moved to recommend it after hearing this week's episode -- more than half the time was devoted to soccer and NASCAR, two sports I find stupefyingly dull, yet the conversation about it was fascinating, provocative and insightful nevertheless. Hit the link above for a click-to-play version or just download the .mp3 of the episode and check it out it out.

An advisory/reminder that a batch of freed-up tickets to Songs of Good Cheer will go on sale Tuesday morning by phone or in person at the Old Town School of Folk Music on Lincoln Avenue (773-728-6000). Another way to get tickets is to be one of the winners of this year's contest:

This year we’re asking the clever and trivia-minded to create one or more questions related to holiday music. The questions should be multiple choice, preferably with four answers. The question should be amusing, maybe mildly informative, and one of the answers must be true.

We’ll pick our six favorite questions and invite their authors – two each night of the shows (Dec. 18, 19 and 20) – onstage where they’ll be pitted against each other in a trivia smackdown...Mary Schmich.

Adding:

Deadline for entries is December 7. Keep `em clean, don't forget to include the correct answer and enter as often as you like by e-mail (to ericzorn@gmail.com) or normal mail (Mary Schmich, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave. Room 400, Chicago 60611). All entries become property of the Tribune, where we’ll use them to create version three of the ever-viral “So you think you know carols?” quizzes that inspired this contest:

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Why is he doing this? Because he’s bitter. According to former staffers and associates, he was upset by his dismal showing in the 2004 Democratic presidential primary. And he was enraged by the tepid support he got from many party leaders in 2006, when he lost the Democratic primary to an anti-war activist and won re-election as an independent. Gradually, this personal alienation has eaten away at his liberal domestic views. ... For Lieberman, the personal has become political, and it has pushed him further to the right....from What Made Joe Bitter, an analysis of Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman's unexpectedly conservative, staunch stand on health-care reform legislation, by Peter Beinart in the Daily Beast.

What's mortifying to me is watching the Democrats wheedle and suck up to Lieberman like some pathetic, rejected suitor. And no matter how many roses they send or gooey love notes they leave under his windshield wipers, what are they going to get for the groveling way they let him keep his committee chairmanship and overall acts of abasement? Bubkes.

The Republicans claim to base their opposition to the new (breast-cancer) screening guidelines on their reverence for life. They insist that President Obama, in a crass effort to save money, is rationing mammography. To hear them tell it, it is worth virtually any amount of money to save even one additional woman from becoming a breast cancer fatality. Yet the reality is that they are only concerned about the breasts already covered by health insurance. Republicans are apparently unmoved by the fact that up to 600 women die each year because their lack of health insurance prevents timely access to mammograms, diagnostic procedures and breast cancer treatment.....Dr. Amy Tuteur, Salon

The message to voters is, "We can safely assume that, of course, I will win the primary over these other six GOP pretenders. So let's start looking ahead to the fall, shall we?"

And Quinn is smart to fire back at McKenna for the same reason -- it presumes a primary victory.

It's still early to be handicapping these races, but I'm skeptical that McKenna is even close to sealing the deal with Republican voters. And I'm also skeptical that Republican voters will want to set the wayback machine for 2002 and re-nominate former Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan.

My sense is that most of them are still window shopping.

Democratic primary voters are probably inclining toward Quinn at this point, but if Hynes remains in striking distance and still has money in January, the debates, commercials and news events could swing the primary his way.

Low -- the Utah-based indie group from which the Songs of Good Cheer ensemble learned the haunting Christmas song "Take the Long Way Around The Sea"(hear it) -- has also recorded a version of the much-reviled "Little Drummer Boy." I'm not promising you'll like it, but you may find it tolerable (pay no attention to the third-party video):

You’re going to tell me that I’m supposed to pray for the socialist devil, murderer, infanticide, who wants to see young children, and he wants to see babies killed through abortion and partial-birth abortion and all these different things? Nope. I’m not gonna pray for his good. I’m going to pray that he dies and goes to hell....Pastor Steve Anderson of Faithful World Baptist Church in Tempe, Ariz., about President Obama, quoted in Praying for Obama's death (Salon)

About "Change of Subject."

"Change of Subject" by Chicago Tribune op-ed columnist Eric Zorn contains observations, reports, tips, referrals and tirades, though not necessarily in that order. Links will tend to expire, so seize the day. For an archive of Zorn's latest Tribune columns click here. An explanation of the title of this blog is here. If you have other questions, suggestions or comments, send e-mail to ericzorn at gmail.com.
More about Eric Zorn

Contributing editor Jessica Reynolds is a 2012 graduate of Loyola University Chicago and is the coordinator of the Tribune's editorial board. She can be reached at jreynolds at tribune.com.